Prime Performance

What the 1990s lacked
in style and taste, they
made up for with a
Japanese sporty car revolution.
The CRX and original MR2 started
that revolution in the 1980s, but it
exploded in the last decade of the
20th century.

Suddenly we had 300-horsepower,
twin-turbo Z-cars, Supras
and 3000 GTs, plus Ferrari-baiting
NSXs. Topping it all off was a slew
of budget hot-hatches that still
define an industry standard.

That decade also treated us
to a second-generation Toyota
MR2. It took everything we loved
about the original and seemingly
made it better–and added an
optional 200-horsepower turbocharged
and intercooled engine
that moved the MR2 squarely into
budget supercar territory.

Smash cut to present day.
Grunge fashion that once came
for pennies from the thrift store
has been replaced by grunge fashion
bought at the mall, while U2
records that once came from the
mall are now free. But you know
what hasn’t changed? Those second-
gen MR2s are still darn good
cars, despite rapidly approaching
the quarter-century mark.

That’s where Prime Performance
comes in. Nestled in the quaint
New Jersey village of Stanhope–
about 45 minutes west of Newark
Airport–is a shop providing hope
for the future of the beloved
SW20-chassis MR2.

Prime was founded by hobbyist
Bryan Fox in 2004 as an extension
of his love of all things MR2. He
was working on his cars, then his
friends’ cars, then their friends’
cars, so he thought, Why not turn
it into a business? Justin Burnash
came along in 2010 as business
partner and helper for more of the
“clean hands” work while Bryan
and crew turned the wrenches.

Over the last couple of years,
though, Prime’s business has
migrated toward one main specialty:
Gen4 3S-GTE swaps. We’ll
explain in a minute why these are
such a good idea, but first a little
MR2 history.

The 1991-’95 Toyota MR2 Turbo
was equipped with a 2.0-liter
four that sported Toyota’s internal
code 3S-GTE. This was the second
generation of that particular
engine, with the original having
appeared in all-wheel-drive turbo
Celicas. While the MR2 disappeared
from the U.S. market after
1995, it continued in Japan with
a third generation of the turbocharged
3S-GTE under the engine
lid, this one upping the ante by
about 45 horsepower over the
second-gen’s 200.

When the MR2 died completely
after 1999, the 3S-GTE lived on
in a fourth-generation configuration
in the Japan-only Toyota
Caldina. Picture a Subaru Legacy-looking
wagon equipped with all-wheel-drive.

The fourth-gen 3S-GTE engine
was far from pedestrian, however.
Toyota bumped output to a rated
256 horsepower while adding
some modern technologies. Manifold
air pressure (MAP) now called
the shots for fuel control, replacing
the earlier generations’ Air Flow
Meters (AFM). The updated engine
also used a modern coil-on-plug
style ignition system, fired by a
solid state distributorless ignition
that was triggered from a crank
angle sensor. Controlling everything
was a new computer that
had far more processing power
than earlier versions as well as
OBDII compatibility.

Basically, it was a thoroughly
modern evolution of the same
engine that had been gracing SW20MR2 engine bays since they
were introduced. It was, therefore,
a natural candidate for a swap.

Prime, now a legit business,
was doing more than a few of
these Gen4 swaps into neglected
MR2s, including those needing
new engines. At this point, the
swap is basically the core of their
business. “We’ve been part of the
MR2 community for a while, so
we’ve got good connections and
we know where to look for stuff,”
says Burnash. “At this point we
probably do 20 to 30 ‘flip’ cars a
year, where we’ll find a car with a
blown motor, swap it, get it road
worthy and sell it. That’s in addition
to 40 or so swaps we’re doing
on customer cars.”

The swap is rather straightforward.
Essentially it’s the same
engine going back into the car, so
packaging and mounts aren’t an
issue. If anything, the Gen4 powerplant’s
distributorless ignition
makes for a cleaner, less cluttered
engine bay than the original. The
Gen4 engines–bought from a JDM
importer as takeouts with 40,000
to 60,000 miles on the clock.

The original MR2 Turbo transmission
is retained and, as with
the engine mount situation, it’s a
bolt-up affair. The list of custom
parts is actually quite short: some
exhaust bits, throttle cable, intake
piping, fuel lines, polished stainless
steel intercooler piping and a
few other assorted bits. The most
important custom assembly is
the wiring harness, a system that
Prime contracts out to WireGap,
Inc., who uses OEM-style connectors
and construction techniques.

Overall, the visual effect is understated,
unless custom finishes are
involved. Were it not for a single
piece of braided hose buried deep
in the engine bay, an untrained eye
would have great difficulty discerning
that this was anything but an
OEM engine bay. But the results
are fairly spectacular.

A Gen4-swapped MR2 really
is a best-of-all-worlds situation.
You get the lovely, nimble, midengined
MR2 chassis, unencumbered
by the high window sills,
bulky doors and tiny windshields
required by modern safety regulations,
powered by a thoroughly
modern-feeling engine. While the
Gen2 3S-GTE impressed when
it debuted in the MR2 in 1990,
by today’s drivability standards it feels like quite a throwback. The
Gen4 engine, in contrast, has
instant throttle response, progressive
power delivery, and greatly
reduced NVH compared to its
ancestor. It really feels like you’re
getting away with something.

We had been eying second-gen
MR2 Turbos for a while, and found
prices all over the place. We have
seen rats for $4000, while $16,000
buys a low-mileage survivor.

Then we visited Prime. We
were so impressed, actually, we
couldn’t leave empty-handed.
After thoroughly emptying every
local ATM we could find, we
made the 1100-mile drive back
to Florida in a freshly Gen4-
swapped 1991 MR2 Turbo. (Okay,
full disclosure: We had arranged
the deal prior to our visit. Even
in Jersey, ATMs won’t let you get
that much out in a day. But this
car took us so much by surprise,
buying it felt like a mad grab.)

After a few weeks of life with the
car, our initial impressions hold
up. Prime’s modest, restomod
approach provides a whole new
lease on life for aging MR2s.

So what’s all this mid-engined
goodness going to cost? Assuming
you already have an MR2,
Prime will sell you a bag of goodies
to complete the swap yourself
for around $1500. You’ll need to
add the engine, computer and
wiring harness–they’ll be happy to
put you in touch with an engine
importer and their harness guy–
and you’re down the road.

If you don’t want to get your
hands dirty, Prime will do a soup-to-
nuts swap on your turbo MR2
starts around $4500. Converting
a normally aspirated car will be a
few hundred more. The non-turbo
cars require hub adapters and a
few other bits if you’re converting
to a full turco drivetrain, but aside
from that everything bolts right
in. Drop it off, then pick it up and
drive away in a couple weeks.

They also sell built cars like ours
pretty much as fast as they can
assemble them. After pricing cars
on today’s market, we went for the
instant gratification.

“We dabbled with doing staged
and specific builds on the cars that we swap and flip, but we
realized the market wasn’t quite
there yet. People still want to personalize
these cars–they just want
a solid base to start with,” Burnash
explains. “If someone wants
to consign something specific,
we’re happy to build them exactly
what they want, though. But right
now we sell cars literally as fast
as we can build them, so this
seems to be where the market is
at the moment.

“Even so, we won’t let anything
leave that isn’t 100 percent road
worthy and solid. We won’t build a
car out of a rat or an unsafe chassis.
But the overall quality is going
to vary a bit based on the car we
start with. We fix what’s broken,
but we’re not restoring them per
se. And, obviously, our actual
motor swaps are all done to a very
high standard and thoroughly road
tested before we even think about
letting them leave.”

Most of the complete flip cars
that leave Prime’s shop do so in
the $7000 to $10,000 range.
Ours was priced in the middle and
featured an 85,000-mile chassis
that looks to have lived a relatively
easy life. It took a couple hundred
bucks to get the a/c up to spec, but
it made the 1100-mile drive home
to Florida without a hiccup and
while averaging nearly 30mpg. It
needs some paintwork to complete
the package, but overall the body
is straight and shows well.

Best of all, it drives like a dream.

There’s a lot we like about what
Prime is doing. First, they’re preserving
some exceptional cars that
would otherwise probably rot away.
They’re applying the “restomod”
model–so popular among domestic
hot rods and some European classics–
to a breed of car that many of
us grew up with. For a lot of us in
our 30s and 40s, the MR2 Turbo
was our E-Type or Shelby Mustang.
Prime is giving us that delicious
1990s Japanese sports car cake–
and letting us eat it, too.

I deleted if like 5 times and the E36 M3 would keep coming back. I find U2 boring. I had to go to some special I-tunes page to get rid of it for good. More involved than it should've been. U2 and Apple owe me about 15 minutes worth of my time as far as I see it. I wonder what would happen if I sent them an invoice.

I LOVE these cars. I think I even fit into them being 6'4 like I did in my 1973 914 2.0 daily driver, the 3141st 2 liter built. (OK, so I had to take out the seat cushion of the fiberglass seat to pass the Polishing Club of America's roll bar rule for the track with my brain bucket on, but so be it.) Time to try one on again, then decide what car I should buy, E36 M3 vs MR2 Turbo vs 2004 or newer Boxster or Cayman (I don't fit in 1st gen 986's, and BTW although Porsche NEVER advertised the Boxster as the reincarnation of the 914, funny how 8+6=14.)

For all those who didn't already know, the 1st gen MR2's dash was a copy of the Coutach's, and MR2=Mid Engined RWD 2 seater. Yeah, that last part is pretty bloody obvious!

Schump wrote: For all those who didn't already know, the 1st gen MR2's dash was a copy of the Coutach's, and MR2=Mid Engined RWD 2 seater. Yeah, that last part is pretty bloody obvious!

It's actually "Midship Runabout" ...and I just wasted a good 10 minutes trying to find some sort of similarity between the Countach and Mk.1 MR2 dashboards, and aside from "boxy instrument hood" I couldn't come up with anything.

Schump wrote: For all those who didn't already know, the 1st gen MR2's dash was a copy of the Coutach's, and MR2=Mid Engined RWD 2 seater. Yeah, that last part is pretty bloody obvious!

It's actually "Midship Runabout" ...and I just wasted a good 10 minutes trying to find some sort of similarity between the Countach and Mk.1 MR2 dashboards, and aside from "boxy instrument hood" I couldn't come up with anything.

I was told this by a friend whose older sister owned one and he, at the time, knew a lot more about cars than me. I agree with you, the only other similarity I see is the left dash vent and the angle of it being similar in the Countach and MR2. "Midship runabout" sounds pretty Toyota-esque though it seems the translation was aimed at the British market as I've never heard an American call a car a runabout.